Dan Adiletta

Dan Adiletta, a first-year teacher at Explore Middle School — which is closing at the end of the year — is leaving Oakland. He tells us why. -Katy

Goodbye, Oakland.

I stand up to and for your students and see to their learning with all the energy I can muster. I manage to stretch paycheck to paycheck while providing many of my own class supplies. I shoulder stress and come back for more. But despite having managed to drag myself this far, I’m being put into the very category I’ve struggled to avoid: the one-year teacher.